``binascii`` --- Convert between binary and ASCII
*************************************************
The ``binascii`` module contains a number of methods to convert
between binary and various ASCII-encoded binary representations.
Normally, you will not use these functions directly but use wrapper
modules like ``uu``, ``base64``, or ``binhex`` instead. The
``binascii`` module contains low-level functions written in C for
greater speed that are used by the higher-level modules.
The ``binascii`` module defines the following functions:
binascii.a2b_uu(string)
Convert a single line of uuencoded data back to binary and return
the binary data. Lines normally contain 45 (binary) bytes, except
for the last line. Line data may be followed by whitespace.
binascii.b2a_uu(data)
Convert binary data to a line of ASCII characters, the return value
is the converted line, including a newline char. The length of
*data* should be at most 45.
binascii.a2b_base64(string)
Convert a block of base64 data back to binary and return the binary
data. More than one line may be passed at a time.
binascii.b2a_base64(data)
Convert binary data to a line of ASCII characters in base64 coding.
The return value is the converted line, including a newline char.
The length of *data* should be at most 57 to adhere to the base64
standard.
binascii.a2b_qp(string[, header])
Convert a block of quoted-printable data back to binary and return
the binary data. More than one line may be passed at a time. If the
optional argument *header* is present and true, underscores will be
decoded as spaces.
binascii.b2a_qp(data[, quotetabs, istext, header])
Convert binary data to a line(s) of ASCII characters in quoted-
printable encoding. The return value is the converted line(s). If
the optional argument *quotetabs* is present and true, all tabs and
spaces will be encoded. If the optional argument *istext* is
present and true, newlines are not encoded but trailing whitespace
will be encoded. If the optional argument *header* is present and
true, spaces will be encoded as underscores per RFC1522. If the
optional argument *header* is present and false, newline characters
will be encoded as well; otherwise linefeed conversion might
corrupt the binary data stream.
binascii.a2b_hqx(string)
Convert binhex4 formatted ASCII data to binary, without doing RLE-
decompression. The string should contain a complete number of
binary bytes, or (in case of the last portion of the binhex4 data)
have the remaining bits zero.
binascii.rledecode_hqx(data)
Perform RLE-decompression on the data, as per the binhex4 standard.
The algorithm uses ``0x90`` after a byte as a repeat indicator,
followed by a count. A count of ``0`` specifies a byte value of
``0x90``. The routine returns the decompressed data, unless data
input data ends in an orphaned repeat indicator, in which case the
``Incomplete`` exception is raised.
binascii.rlecode_hqx(data)
Perform binhex4 style RLE-compression on *data* and return the
result.
binascii.b2a_hqx(data)
Perform hexbin4 binary-to-ASCII translation and return the
resulting string. The argument should already be RLE-coded, and
have a length divisible by 3 (except possibly the last fragment).
binascii.crc_hqx(data, crc)
Compute the binhex4 crc value of *data*, starting with an initial
*crc* and returning the result.
binascii.crc32(data[, crc])
Compute CRC-32, the 32-bit checksum of data, starting with an
initial crc. This is consistent with the ZIP file checksum. Since
the algorithm is designed for use as a checksum algorithm, it is
not suitable for use as a general hash algorithm. Use as follows:
print binascii.crc32("hello world")
# Or, in two pieces:
crc = binascii.crc32("hello")
crc = binascii.crc32(" world", crc) & 0xffffffff
print 'crc32 = 0x%08x' % crc
Note: To generate the same numeric value across all Python versions and
platforms use crc32(data) & 0xffffffff. If you are only using the
checksum in packed binary format this is not necessary as the return
value is the correct 32bit binary representation regardless of sign.
Changed in version 2.6: The return value is in the range [-2**31,
2**31-1] regardless of platform. In the past the value would be
signed on some platforms and unsigned on others. Use & 0xffffffff on
the value if you want it to match 3.0 behavior.
Changed in version 3.0: The return value is unsigned and in the range
[0, 2**32-1] regardless of platform.
binascii.b2a_hex(data)
binascii.hexlify(data)
Return the hexadecimal representation of the binary *data*. Every
byte of *data* is converted into the corresponding 2-digit hex
representation. The resulting string is therefore twice as long as
the length of *data*.
binascii.a2b_hex(hexstr)
binascii.unhexlify(hexstr)
Return the binary data represented by the hexadecimal string
*hexstr*. This function is the inverse of ``b2a_hex()``. *hexstr*
must contain an even number of hexadecimal digits (which can be
upper or lower case), otherwise a ``TypeError`` is raised.
exception exception binascii.Error
Exception raised on errors. These are usually programming errors.
exception exception binascii.Incomplete
Exception raised on incomplete data. These are usually not
programming errors, but may be handled by reading a little more
data and trying again.
See also:
Module ``base64``
Support for base64 encoding used in MIME email messages.
Module ``binhex``
Support for the binhex format used on the Macintosh.
Module ``uu``
Support for UU encoding used on Unix.
Module ``quopri``
Support for quoted-printable encoding used in MIME email
messages.